Parking Policy Change at University of Utah Sparks Outrage

Published: Oct 10, 2025

Students are furious after the University of Utah announced a recent policy change regarding parking.

The U recently announced in a statement that by fall semester 2026 “At least 40% of courses must be scheduled outside of primetime hours.” This has made students who commute, as well as students who have part time jobs, angry. Students believe that this will not help the problem. 

Students at the U have had a longstanding issue with the parking situation on campus. Caroline Madsen, a freshman who commutes from Cottonwood Heights, said, “I have been late to a lot of classes … just cause there is no parking!” She added that “It makes it really difficult for the people who can’t afford to live on campus.” 

Given the history on the issue, students were hopeful when the university released a statement on their Instagram page. However, “the new policy that they’re talking about … won’t actually help anybody,” said freshman Isaac Rammell, who lives on campus but has an off-campus job. “It’s just going [to] make students spend more time here, therefore more cars are going to be in the parking lots.”

Rammell added that the new schedule is going to “stretch [students’] schedules out across the day, forcing students to be on campus for longer.” Dana Buckley, the mother of a commuter student, said, “This means everyone is going to have to be on campus all day,” adding, “nobody is going to have time for a part-time job in order to pay their way through school.”

The ability to work a job is an important aspect of this issue, and many students are concerned. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 40% of full-time college students were employed in 2020. The U costs between $40,846 and $62,590 per year, depending on housing and residency, according the their website. This price forces many students to work to pay for school. “I have to keep my job to afford to go here,” Rammell said. 

Students were angry enough to act. On Sept 9, there was a protest to fight back against the parking policy. It is to be determined if this demonstration made any real change.